Mennat El Ghalid: How fungi recognize (and infect) plants
Mennat El Ghalid: I funghi patogeni riconoscono (e infettano) le piante
Mennat El Ghalid research aims to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying fungal biology and pathogenicity. Full bio
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counting nearly four billion trees,
una popolazione di circa quattro miliardi,
by a fungal infection.
da un'infezione fungina.
pathogens of plants,
più distruttivi,
economic importance.
di maggior importanza economica.
with fungal infection
associate alle infezioni fungine
per year, worldwide?
di dollari all'anno, in tutto il mondo?
to feed half a billion people.
a sfamare mezzo miliardo di persone.
in developing countries,
nei paesi in via di sviluppo,
for farmers and distributors,
degli agricoltori e dei distributori,
poison produced by fungi.
veleni prodotti dai funghi.
è che il metodo attuale
used to prevent and treat
queste terribili malattie,
exploiting natural sources of resistance,
sfruttando la resistenza naturale,
treatment, among others,
o il trattamento dei semi, tra gli altri,
to develop more efficient strategies
urgentemente strategie più efficienti
to identify biological mechanisms
per identificare i meccanismi biologici
by novel antifungal treatments.
da nuovi trattamenti antifungini.
is that they cannot move
è che non si possono muovere
to form a sophisticated network,
formando una complessa rete,
the father of plant pathology,
il padre della fitopatologia,
that fungi are guided by signals
fossero guidati da segnali
it can lodge and subsist,
su cui potersi collocare e vivere.
crescono verso di lei, la raggiungono
of such signals
di tali segnali
that then serves to elaborate strategy
utile per elaborare una strategia
between the fungus and the plant.
tra il fungo e la pianta.
method at that moment
di un metodo appropriato
this mechanism at the molecular level.
meccanismo a livello molecolare.
genomic approaches,
e approcci genomico-mutazionali,
of directed hyphal growth,
della crescita delle ife verso la pianta,
that after 130 years,
che dopo 130 anni,
could finally identify such plant signals
finalmente identificare tali segnali
between a pathogenic fungus
tra un fungo patogeno,
the tomato plant.
il pomodoro.
receiving those signals
che riceve questi segnali
occurring within the fungus
che avviene dentro il fungo
toward the plant.
nella sua crescita verso la pianta.
of such molecular processes
di tali processi molecolari
novel antifungal treatments.
nuovi trattamenti antifungini.
the fungus and the plant
which receives those signals.
che riceve tali segnali.
agriculture crops.
hanno devastato i raccolti.
is increasing significantly.
sta aumentando significativamente.
economic development,
allo sviluppo economico,
e alla domanda di biocarburanti.
of the molecular mechanism
del meccanismo molecolare
a fungus and its host plant,
e la sua pianta ospite,
towards developing more efficient strategy
un passo fondamentale
per combattere le malattie fungine
that affect people's lives,
che affliggono la vita delle persone,
e lo sviluppo economico.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mennat El Ghalid - MycologistMennat El Ghalid research aims to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying fungal biology and pathogenicity.
Why you should listen
Mycologist Mennat El Ghalid received an Initial Training Networks - Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship to pursue her PhD project in the Molecular Genetics of Fungal Pathogenicity Unit and the International Campus of Excellence in Agrifood CeiA3 at the Universidad de Cordoba (Spain). During her PhD, her former team and herself identified the compounds secreted from the plant roots attracting Fusarium oxysporum, a soilborne plant pathogenic fungus and characterized the underlying mechanisms of attraction. Such compounds were tracked since the 19th century. The discovery was published in the Nature Journal.
El Ghalid became a TED Fellow in 2017 and have been selected as one of the 100 women honorees for OkayAfrica's 2018 #OKAY100Women list for her dedicated work and for being a promising talent within the field of STEM. She is currently working at Institut Pasteur (France) in the Biology and Pathogenicity Unit to study Candida albicans, an opportunistic pathogenic fungus and the main cause of fungal infections in immunocompromised humans.
Mennat El Ghalid | Speaker | TED.com